


Meet Cute

by Sagnessagiel



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: AU, F/M, Jason has tattoos, Steph is done with your shit, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-09 21:16:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5555633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sagnessagiel/pseuds/Sagnessagiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cross-posted from tumblr. </p>
<p>Stephanie wakes up God Knows When in the morning to someone ringing her doorbell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet Cute

Stephanie wakes up God Knows When in the morning to someone ringing her doorbell

 

The sound is loud enough that it feels like knives cutting into her ears, and she springs awake and upright when she hears it with a knife in her hand. It’s the one her father sent her last Christmas from prison. The absence of anything to actually attack serves only to calm her slightly. There’s another ring, and Stephanie vows to kill whomever is bothering her when she’s sleeping. If it’s the neighbourhood kids again, she is going to start setting up traps.

 

She sinks back against the headboard and waits to see if the sound comes again. A full fifteen seconds pass, and she begins to sink further when it rings again, startling her. She glares at the doorway that leads out into the living room and the hall. The clock by her bed glares just as viciously when she looks at it. Five in the fuckin’ morning. She doesn’t have to be up for at least four hours, and here she is getting out of bed. She throws a bathrobe around herself and considers just yelling, but it wouldn’t discourage them. That, and it would probably wake the tattooed angry guy who lives next door and she is not ready for that fight right now. She may know her way around a fight, but that guy is large.

 

She unlocks the door and pulls it open fast enough that whomever might be outside isn’t allowed any time to run. The door would have slammed and pulled on its hinges if she wasn’t there to slow the momentum of it, but it still has its intended effect. The form in the doorway rears back a little and raises its hands to ward off the source of its surprise. Stephanie glares with all the irritation she can muster, given how tired she is.

 

But then she stops, because there aren’t any kids at all. Instead it’s the tattooed guy in her doorway, clad in soft pajama pants and a flannel shirt and wringing his hands as if he’s two feet shorter than he actually is. He looks mildly spooked, eyes wide, and nothing like the irritated mess of muscles and ruffled hair that usually stalks past outside her door in the afternoons. Stephanie stops, blinks.

 

Tattooed guy opens his mouth, and nothing comes out for a few moments. Then he scratches the back of his head, looking shy and completely in contrast with everything Steph ever imagined him to be.

 

“I’m sorry to wake you up,” he says, glances at the clock on the wall behind her. “um, because I’m really hoping I did, at this time in the morning. Otherwise I’d worry about you.”

 

Stephanie wants to answer with something, but she isn’t sure exactly what because, um, glasses. On his nose. Matching the flannel to make him look like the most adorable hipster Stephanie has ever seen, and _is this the same guy?_

 

“I’m, um, I…” The guy shrinks in on himself a little, unsure of whatever he was going to say. He takes a steadying breath. “I kind of need your help with something.”

 

Stephanie takes a moment to process this information, and another one to drag her eyes away from the swirling patterns on his muscular forearms. She gapes for only a moment before she recovers and asks “What with?”

 

It’s dark, but she can definitely see a faint blush rising on his cheeks. “Um, that’s just it. There’s kind of this huge spider in my kitchen, and I, uh, could use some help getting rid of it.”

 

There is then a moment of silence in which Stephanie blinks once, twice, three times. She feels a tug at her lips that is both amused and incredulous, and then she’s muffling a laugh, which makes the guy avert his eyes and shuffle his feet.

 

“In my defense,” he mutters, and Stephanie swears that was a _pout_ , “it is pretty huge. He was right next to my face by the time I discovered him.”

 

Stephanie tries very hard and fails even harder not to picture that incident, and it makes her want to laugh more. She smiles instead, and wraps the loose bathrobe a little tighter around herself.

 

“Sure, why not,” she says, amused. “Not like I got anything better to do, right?”

 

Tattooed guy grins, and waits as she steps into the shoes she keep by the door. “I’m Jason,” he says as she steps outside and locks it. Steph grins back.

 

“Stephanie,” she says, offering a hand and shaking his. “So, lead the way to the monster.”

 

“My hero,” Jason laughs. “This way.” And he leads her over to the apartment next to hers. She suddenly feels a lot less tired.


End file.
